Become aware of habits when growing your bookkeeping business

In Peter Cook’s book The New Rules of Management he talks about working on projects that matter and explains that “everything we do is either a response, a habit, a system or a project (and projects are what rock)”. Pete says that some habits are conscious and some are unconscious. Some are very handy (like brushing your teeth) and others you might like to get rid of.

When you become aware of habits which don’t serve you it’s much harder to keep doing them. Your conscious, reasoning mind will step in and make it uncomfortable. I spoke to a bookkeeper who intended to put on staff but, for some reason, kept putting it off. I asked her to close her eyes and think about her clients and to imagine another bookkeeper doing the work instead of her. She suddenly realised that the reason she put off hiring was because she was embarrassed about the thought of another person putting up with what she allowed her clients to get away with. She had been with them for so long that bad habits had developed. She allowed them to pay her when they wanted, not everything was ready for her at the agreed time and directed her to process transactions that could risk her BAS Agent registration! They didn’t respect her.

I simply asked her why she tolerated that when she wouldn’t allow her team to be subjected that behaviour. That was it! She knew that she couldn’t allow that to happen anymore. She spent the next few months having tough conversations, sacking some clients, putting systems in place, retraining other clients and has now hired her first bookkeeper.

If you’re starting up in business then create good habits in your business to avoid this scenario later. If you’re aware now that you’re already in that place, you won’t be able to stay there for long.